Page 15 of Jonah


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I laughed. “All she did was complain about that. After the first summer, I thought she was going to put her foot down and say no more, but Dad actually stepped in.”

Those had been the best times of my high school years. Russ’s family had opened my eyes to a whole world I’d never realized existed. His family loved more completely and more openly than anyone I’d ever met.

“She was hoping it was a fad, but after that first year when you came back so convinced it was the right path, she just seemed to suck it up.” Shane chuckled. “Nothing you ever did as a kid was a fad, so no one could see why she was so convinced you’d give up the idea.”

Russ grinned. “Man, she gave me dirty looks every time I went over there for almost a year.”

I groaned. “I was so glad once she stopped fighting it.”

“I felt like your dealer or something every time we hung out there. I was so glad once she stopped being pissed.” Russ shook his head. “She can hold a grudge.”

That was one of the reasons we’d kept things quiet.

I knew not everyone would have been able to accept my keeping things from my family, so I was always grateful for how understanding Russ was. I had a feeling his family had something to do with it. With several relatives in unconventional relationships, there was always someone to ask for advice. His uncle had spent those summers teaching us how to balance a relationship like ours and not just about construction.

“She really settled down when she realized I was still going to get a degree.” I rolled my eyes. “Evidently, that made everything easier to bear.”

Shane chuckled. “Oh, I remember those phone calls. You made my plans look reasonable, so I appreciate it.”

Night classes and online courses hadn’t exactly made her happy, but she’d accepted it. Thinking about the life we’d built, I knew we’d made the right choices.

I grinned. “Glad to have helped.”

Tanner just didn’t understand the drama. “Looking at your skills and the planning that must have gone into the decision, I can’t see why she objected. At the very least, if it failed after a few years, you could have gone back to school and focused on a different route.”

“She’s never been able to see past her very narrow view of acceptable.” I glanced over at Russ and saw him give a slow nod.

It was the best lead-in I was going to get. “It’s why I’ve kept a lot about my personal life from the family. Most wouldn’t care what I was doing, but she’s very vocal and opinionated even when it comes from a good place.”

Shane groaned. “Oh yeah, I can relate to that.”

Tanner nodded and decided to prod things along. “I can see why you guys never talked about your personal lives. In your positions, I would have probably made the same decisions.” Then he gave Shane a pointed look.

Shane sighed. “Yeah, even if I had understood more about what I was feeling earlier, I wouldn’t have brought it up to anyone in the family. Everyone always agrees with my mom and yours, and it didn’t feel like a good idea to go against them.”

I kept telling myself sharing with Shane would be fine, but even with all the facts saying that he wouldn’t care, it was still difficult. “I understand completely. They’re so vocal about what a relationship should look like and how omegas should be treated, it makes it impossible to share any views or relationships that go against their ideas.”

Shane nodded, looking to Tanner before back at me. “Yeah, when I first realized what kind of…” He paused and started again. “When I first realized Tanner wanted a Dom, I never thought about talking to anyone in the family. My first reaction was figuring out how to keep it quiet.”

My turn.

I stretched my foot out under the table and rested it against Russ’s leg. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him smiling encouragingly, but it was still hard. “When Russ and I first started dating and acknowledging our relationship was more than just friendship, I knew that wasn’t going to be something she could understand.”

Shane stilled, glancing back and forth between Russ and me before nodding. “Yeah, I can see that. No one on that side of the family has been very open-minded.”

That was it?

Tanner clearly had more questions. “So you’ve been together since high school? Is that why both of them kept complaining that you were a confirmed bachelor?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, but explaining that would be…difficult.”

The one time I’d come close, the conversation had gone so badly I’d just walked away. Maybe if I hadn’t brought it up as a hypothetical situation it would have been different, but I wasn’t sure. There’d been some small scandal about an alpha politician who was found to be dating a beta and omega at the same time and everyone had gone crazy.

I’d pointed it out and took the position that as long as they were all consenting, what did it matter if he was just dating both or even in a long-term committed relationship with the men, and she’d gone nuts. Hearing her venting about how an omega shouldn’t be treated that way was painful. It was like the idea of him dating both men was the same as torturing the poor omega.

Russ spoke up. “I have several relatives in unconventional relationships. My grandparents and even some of my current aunts and uncles are in relationships with two alphas and one omega. My grandfather said his grandfather told him one time that it used to be really common but got lumped in with the idea of omega rights as things started to change.”

“I can see that to a degree, but consenting relationships shouldn’t be grouped with the issues we had in the past.” Tanner shook his head, reaching for his glass. “It’s the same as an omega wanting to submit. Some things seem to be in our wiring and fighting it doesn’t make sense.”